The predator bids adieu

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Right from the time Michael Owen, the blue-eyed-boy of Liverpool hailing from the red half of Merseyside, made his debut at the tender age of 17, no Liverpudlian could so much as dare inveigh into him. In the eyes of the Liverpool faithful, he was seen as infallible.

The admiration for Owen reached its zenith in 2001 when ‘The Reds’ completed a treble albeit not of the same grandeur of what their fiercest rivals from Old Trafford achieved two summers earlier. Many at the time felt that Owen too would do something of a Ryan Giggs, a Paolo Maldini or a Francesco Totti for being devoted to one club and one club alone.
Rightly or wrongly we homosapiens perceive ourselves as the most perspicacious of all species, yet sometimes as Owen would strongly testify we are prone to making the most horrendous errors of judgement. His ill-fated move to Real Madrid to become a part of the then president and the incumbent Florentino Perez’s magnum opus ‘Galacticios’ project in 2004 ended in misery. But this is where the really great distinguish themselves from the not so great. It is often said that a man’s true character is revealed when confronted by adversity and so it proved vis-a-vis Owen when he continued to soldier on, white knuckling the mounting injuries that trailed him like his shadow.
Owen again made the headlines in 2009 not for his footballing feats but more for his incredulous choice of moving to his one-time Liverpool’s implacable enemies Manchester United. This decision of his, prudent or otherwise, further antagonised him among the Liverpool fans.
On the international scene, Owen wore the ‘Three Lions’ jersey with pride and belied the appearances of a pygmy to become a colossus. An injury free Owen was a handful to even the strongest of teams as was vindicated by his stupendous goal against their sworn adversaries Argentina in the second round of the 1998 World Cup at St Etienne.
There was no doubting that Owen was destined for dizzying heights but with the arrival of the no-nonsense Fabio Capello as the manager of England in late 2007, Owen was increasingly marginalised.
This had a lot to do with his fitness concerns and not for his commitment diminishing and with England failing to qualify for Euro 2008, Owen called time on his illustrious international career finishing with 40 goals in 89 matches.
Now he has announced his retirement from all forms of football at the end of the season. He will be missed.